Cancer Immunotherapy

Studies over the past few years have caused a gestalt in thinking about chemotherapy and tumor immunity. Rather than regarding chemotherapy as an immunosuppressive inevitability, it is now recognized that chemotherapeutics can direct and amplify an immune response against cancer. In this chapter, we will review this field with emphasis on the mechanisms behind the immunopotentiating features of classic cytotoxic chemotherapeutics. We will discuss the most recent clinical translations in this field and review the current gaps in our knowledge. In addition we will outline the difficulties that lie ahead in optimally exploiting the immunopotentiating action of classical chemotherapeutics, and describe the way we think this field can move forward.